Author: jeremy chan
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My Final Recital Programme Notes
I often find programme notes at concerts to be dreadfully dull with their objective, third-person description of instrumentations and key changes, so I am going to offer you perfectly biased opinions of the pieces I am going to play / am playing / have just played
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Igor Levit’s Masterclass at the Royal Academy of Music
It’s only April but I have decided that one of my greatest musical regrets in 2022 will certainly be missing Igor Levit’s Wigmore recital
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Observations of a Celestial in an Orchestra
Who knew banging out F-sharp crotchet beats would be so difficult?
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Yoav Levanon’s UK Debut Recital
Serious déjà vu last night when Franz Liszt took leave of his grave to perform a stunning recital for us in the form of a young Israeli pianist called Yoav Levanon.
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Pollini at 80
There was great narrative drive in his playing–never did he once compromise the voicing of the melodies, even at technically treacherous bits–and I thought the last movement of the Fantasie was beautiful played at the rather brisker-than-normal tempo and devoid of sloppy sentimentality.
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Tamara Stefanovich’s 20 Sonatas at Southbank Centre
Went to see Tamara Stefanovich play her marathon of 20 sonatas today, what an incredible experience. She played 20 sonatas from across the history of the sonata form, mixing Scarlatti with Hindemith, Soler with Ustvolskaya to create the most amazing cocktail of classical music I have ever tasted! She divided the sonatas into three recitals…
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Ballet for the first time!
Went to my first ballet in a long while, and when I say long I mean at least fifteen years! In fact, to my conscious memory, I have never seen a ballet before! And boy did I enjoy the Royal Ballet’s production of Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet” at the Royal Opera House tonight (I know,…
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Critique of the Gould Plan for the Abolition of Applause and Demonstrations of All Kinds, a.k.a GPAADAK
Pianist Glenn Gould’s proposed plan for the Abolition of Applause and Demonstrations of All Kinds need reviewing. Its implications may be critical for the future of classical music.
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‘Twas the night before…
The Gold Medal preliminary rounds. Obviously there’s naught to be worried about, but I just wanna write here that I feel very happy that I’m no longer stressed about performing. Even tackling something as huge and challenging as Rach 2, I feel excited to play it. Somehow, while practising for this competition, I’ve found out…
Literally Left-handed 